Damn boy! You lucky to be alive! I rode my bike everywhere as well, even in second stage smog alerts. My day camp was up the hill in Altadena, so every morning I walked the bike up there. Bikes back in the day were heavy. However, coming home was downhill with no helmet! Mostly, unscathed except when this car pulled out of a parking lot and I had to slam on the brakes. I think I even put my feet on the ground as a last resort. The rear tire came up and swung around. It's amazing we survived those days.
Honestly, I really am. Especially that stunt in Jamaica. In addition to being humiliated by the headlight; the exhaust tubes on the motorcycles there didn’t have heat shields so someone (maybe me, maybe Hugh, maybe one of the girls?) got a bad burn from that (because shorts) and the cure in Jamaica was cutting off countless Aloe Vera spines and squeezing the gel out of them.
Going downhill on a bike is maybe one of the best things.
Your dad was nicer than mine. No training wheels, and my first ride (on a banana seat bike) he just ran, pushed it, let me go, and said "Start peddling!". I ended up crashing into a tree and he said "You've got it. You just have to learn how to turn."
We used to bike everywhere to (often where we weren’t supposed to be) and there were plenty of Stingray bikes with banana seats…but boy I’m glad I never had one. My old Schwinn had nice springs in the seat. Even my 3 speed Hawthorne did…Banana seats didn’t…Ouch…especially when we would ride the dirt mounds the city would so often leave for us. (Didn’t they do that on purpose?) The 3 speed Hawthorne did what I wanted nicely and it was one of those gizmos where all the gear shifting was done in a slightly large rear hub. You just twisted the right hand grip to change the gear. I remember it cost me all of $35 from Montgomery Ward. The day I went to pick it up I withdrew the money from the bank…I almost took it back to the bank. $35 was the most money I ever held and there wasn’t really anything wrong with my old Schwinn…But I gave in to the lure of the 3 speed…
I feel you, having gears (and springs) was a game changer. That's how that 10-speed felt to me. I remember the twisted gear changer setup on the handlebars, but I can't remember if that was how my 10-speed was wired. My red steel bike had gear changers on the bottom frame which meant taking your hands off the handlebars to switch.
What I *really* wanted a year later when I was 10 was a skateboard - one with Cadillac wheels - that's what all the cool kids had. My dad said, nah and instead took me to Kmart to pick one out in the basement where they had the sales stuff (blue light special!!).
I remember when skateboards first came out in the 60’s…They didn’t sell well in the mid west. Partly because MW kids looked at them and said, “Heck I can make that!” All you need was a board and one of your sister’s skates. They were verbotten to us, because Mom determined they looked dangerous and they were too slow as a mode of transportation…
You don’t see kids doing anything outside anymore around here. I was talking with a basketball coach I knew and he said, “Go down to the inner city & you see kids playing “park ball” all the time…sandlot games, but go to the burbs & you’ll see every house with a basketball hoop thats rusted & the backboard rotted.” Glad my parents let me run. Today kids can’t/won’t do anything unless parents are with them and organizing the activity. “How can we play baseball without uniforms?” Heck we played baseball without gloves…I went to pick my wife’s car up and here are 12 year old boys holding Mommies hand to walk 3 blocks… I get a kick out of the cat food ad where you hear a kid say, “Mom! I’m cut!” and she just says, “Get a bandaid” Kids need to grow some bark…That means hard play and a bit of rough housing in the real world where they make up their own rules…
Yeah there was a guy Joe Elias who moved to my neighborhood from Cleveland and he had the most expensive bike we ever saw. A 10 speed like you’re talking about with the shifter on the main fork. I think he used about 5 of the gears on our mostly flat neighborhood. Ape hanger handlebars…One thing about banana seats…you could always ride a buddy with them…
Mr Cleveland fancy pants, that tracks! I remember the store I ended up spending my fortune in had the word ‘European’ in the name but I have no idea what kind of bike I needed up with
Actually Joe was pretty poor. He lived with his Mom (They were Lebanese) who I remember wasn’t it great health, in a tiny apartment near us. I never got the whole picture but apparently a nasty divorce. Joe never mentioned his father…The bike was a bribe from him I think…If it was it didn’t work:-)))
Damn boy! You lucky to be alive! I rode my bike everywhere as well, even in second stage smog alerts. My day camp was up the hill in Altadena, so every morning I walked the bike up there. Bikes back in the day were heavy. However, coming home was downhill with no helmet! Mostly, unscathed except when this car pulled out of a parking lot and I had to slam on the brakes. I think I even put my feet on the ground as a last resort. The rear tire came up and swung around. It's amazing we survived those days.
Honestly, I really am. Especially that stunt in Jamaica. In addition to being humiliated by the headlight; the exhaust tubes on the motorcycles there didn’t have heat shields so someone (maybe me, maybe Hugh, maybe one of the girls?) got a bad burn from that (because shorts) and the cure in Jamaica was cutting off countless Aloe Vera spines and squeezing the gel out of them.
Going downhill on a bike is maybe one of the best things.
Your dad was nicer than mine. No training wheels, and my first ride (on a banana seat bike) he just ran, pushed it, let me go, and said "Start peddling!". I ended up crashing into a tree and he said "You've got it. You just have to learn how to turn."
Turning is the hard part; that’s where the empty parking lot comes in.
Yikes!
banana seat, and monkey bars...takes me back:) Then mini bikes and go carts. Then things got serious...
I was never much for the go-carts. Sucking in fumes from the 2-stroke engines made me queasy
We used to bike everywhere to (often where we weren’t supposed to be) and there were plenty of Stingray bikes with banana seats…but boy I’m glad I never had one. My old Schwinn had nice springs in the seat. Even my 3 speed Hawthorne did…Banana seats didn’t…Ouch…especially when we would ride the dirt mounds the city would so often leave for us. (Didn’t they do that on purpose?) The 3 speed Hawthorne did what I wanted nicely and it was one of those gizmos where all the gear shifting was done in a slightly large rear hub. You just twisted the right hand grip to change the gear. I remember it cost me all of $35 from Montgomery Ward. The day I went to pick it up I withdrew the money from the bank…I almost took it back to the bank. $35 was the most money I ever held and there wasn’t really anything wrong with my old Schwinn…But I gave in to the lure of the 3 speed…
I feel you, having gears (and springs) was a game changer. That's how that 10-speed felt to me. I remember the twisted gear changer setup on the handlebars, but I can't remember if that was how my 10-speed was wired. My red steel bike had gear changers on the bottom frame which meant taking your hands off the handlebars to switch.
What I *really* wanted a year later when I was 10 was a skateboard - one with Cadillac wheels - that's what all the cool kids had. My dad said, nah and instead took me to Kmart to pick one out in the basement where they had the sales stuff (blue light special!!).
Skateboarding didn't stick; biking did.
I remember when skateboards first came out in the 60’s…They didn’t sell well in the mid west. Partly because MW kids looked at them and said, “Heck I can make that!” All you need was a board and one of your sister’s skates. They were verbotten to us, because Mom determined they looked dangerous and they were too slow as a mode of transportation…
They’re still big out here. My son’s best friend is an urban skater and his board has put him in the ER, gotta be nearly a 1/2 dozen times
You don’t see kids doing anything outside anymore around here. I was talking with a basketball coach I knew and he said, “Go down to the inner city & you see kids playing “park ball” all the time…sandlot games, but go to the burbs & you’ll see every house with a basketball hoop thats rusted & the backboard rotted.” Glad my parents let me run. Today kids can’t/won’t do anything unless parents are with them and organizing the activity. “How can we play baseball without uniforms?” Heck we played baseball without gloves…I went to pick my wife’s car up and here are 12 year old boys holding Mommies hand to walk 3 blocks… I get a kick out of the cat food ad where you hear a kid say, “Mom! I’m cut!” and she just says, “Get a bandaid” Kids need to grow some bark…That means hard play and a bit of rough housing in the real world where they make up their own rules…
Yeah there was a guy Joe Elias who moved to my neighborhood from Cleveland and he had the most expensive bike we ever saw. A 10 speed like you’re talking about with the shifter on the main fork. I think he used about 5 of the gears on our mostly flat neighborhood. Ape hanger handlebars…One thing about banana seats…you could always ride a buddy with them…
Mr Cleveland fancy pants, that tracks! I remember the store I ended up spending my fortune in had the word ‘European’ in the name but I have no idea what kind of bike I needed up with
Actually Joe was pretty poor. He lived with his Mom (They were Lebanese) who I remember wasn’t it great health, in a tiny apartment near us. I never got the whole picture but apparently a nasty divorce. Joe never mentioned his father…The bike was a bribe from him I think…If it was it didn’t work:-)))